About KONZUK and Household
Design That Embodies You
Founded by designer Karen Konzuk, KONZUK creates enduring jewelry and objects for the home that reveal the unexpected beauty of industrial materials. Our work explores the expressive potential of contrast, from concrete's architectural strength to resin's luminous vibrancy.
Sculptural, refined, and timeless, each piece is created for those who confidently express their individuality through beauty in restraint.
Karen Konzuk
Formally trained as a jeweler, Karen Konzuk set out to create jewelry regarded as wearable architecture and objects designed to endure. Working primarily in concrete, she draws inspiration from contemporary art, modernist architecture, and the built environment, translating their principles of geometry, materiality, proportion, and restraint into objects worn on the body and lived with in the home.
Her distinctive approach to industrial materials has shaped KONZUK for more than two decades, earning international recognition and a devoted following among architects, designers, collectors, and design enthusiasts.
Design Ethos
Rooted in modernist principles, Karen's work is defined by structural precision, material integrity, and clarity of form. Each creation reduces complexity to its essential elements, resulting in bold geometric compositions that explore proportion, balance, texture, and space.
The same design language moves between scales, from jewelry worn intimately on the body to sculptural objects that become part of an interior.
Material Innovation
Material is fundamental to Karen's practice. Concrete provides texture, substance, and architectural presence. Stainless steel brings durability and precision. Resin introduces color and luminosity. Diamond dust contributes subtle brilliance that rewards close observation.
Rather than treating these materials conventionally, Karen explores their expressive possibilities, transforming industrial materials through exacting craftsmanship into compelling contemporary design.
Household
Household grew from Karen's exploration of concrete beyond adornment and into the spaces we inhabit. Drawing on modernist architecture, geometric abstraction, and the built environment, each hand-cast object brings the clarity of form and material integrity of her jewelry to a new scale.
Orbis explores pure geometry through the sphere, its distinctive raw edge balancing precision with imperfection. Habitat comprises five architectural forms whose calculated openings frame glimpses of light, transforming the tealight holder into a small-scale study of architecture, observation, and curiosity. Oiseau captures a creature associated with flight in a material known for its weight, balancing nature and geometry, movement and stillness.
Together, the collections extend Karen's design language from the body into the home, exploring concrete through sculpture, architecture, light, and space.
Designed and made in Canada, Household objects are created to be kept rather than replaced, bringing architectural presence and enduring form into everyday life.
Sculptural Design for Individuality
KONZUK designs enable people to express their individuality with confidence and clarity. Whether worn or lived with, each piece balances strength and subtlety, offering visual presence without excess.
Jewelry becomes an extension of personal identity; sculptural objects bring that same individuality into the home. In both, the intention remains the same: meaningful modern design distinguished by clarity of form, material integrity, and refined simplicity.
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Recognition and Collectibility
KONZUK is collected by architects, design professionals, and cultural institutions worldwide. Highlights include an invitation from the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation to develop an official jewelry collection, a showcase at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, and a limited-edition collection inspired by the work of Hilma af Klint, created for her exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum. KONZUK has also been featured in museum shops internationally, including THE MET in New York and the Red Dot Design Museum in Singapore.
Karen is a 2020 recipient of the Carter Wosk Award in Applied Art and Design. Her other honors include top honors in Fashion and Jewelry in Western Living's Designers of the Year, the Jewelry Design Award at the A' Design Awards in Como, Italy (2014), and a production award at the Craft Council of BC's Earring Show (2018). Her work appears in Daab Publishing, Jewelry Design (2006), Masters of Jewelry Design (2013), and Currents: Contemporary Pacific Northwest Design, produced by IDS Vancouver.
